Resolved ASR Backup but no floppy drive to Restore

There was a previous was on to do the ARS backup without a floppy drive.
However the 2nd part of the questions would be
How does one RESTORE an ASR Backup without a floppy drive.

 

Unfortunately you cannot do an ASR back up without a floppy drive. You would have to put the files intended for the floppy disc in a file on the hard drive and then transfer them to a computer with a floppy drive to make the floppy disk. If you ever needed to do the restore you would then need to attach a floppy drive to your PC. And to make matters worse not all external floppy drives will work with ASR.

Best bet is to use some more advanced back up software like Norton Ghost, Acronis or True Image.

My personal preference is to clone the hard drive to another spare hard drive then you can just swap them over if your hard drive fails. I also back up all my documents to rewritable discs on a regular basis so nothing can ever get lost.

 

Thank you for your suggestion.
I am aware of other alternative methods of doing the backup.
However the original post regarding the problem of backing using ARS did incudle a method of backing up the required files to a floppy without actually having a floppy on the machine.

The solution I am now seeking is how to use that original floppy backup to do the ARS restore without actually having a floppy on the machine.

Microsoft's requirement to use is floppy for any kind of work is perplexing as use of floppys are becoming increasinly rare.

 

For reference here is the original solution for doing an ARS backup without a floppy:

A. An ASR set consists of a system backup and a 3.5" disk that lists the system files that are installed on the PC. If you don't have a 3.5" disk drive on your machine, you won't be able to create the ASR disk. However, you can still create an ASR disk by performing the following steps:
1. Run the ASR Wizard, which is part of Windows Backup.
2. After you run the ASR Wizard, start Windows Explorer.
3. Navigate to the \%windir%\repair folder (e.g., C:\windows\repair).
4. Copy the asr.sif and asrpnp.sif files to a network location.
5. On a different networked computer that has a 3.5" disk drive, copy these files to a 3.5" disk and label the disk as your ASR disk.

I got this off of Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE [XPandWin2K-TipsandTricks_UPDATE@list.winnetmag.com] newsletter

 

As Mark pointed out, you can't you would need a floppy drive connected to the computer to perform a restore.

 

tlee808, just to clarify, you can do the back up without a floppy disc but you have to make a floppy disc to do the restore and use a floppy disc drive. The ASR system for restore will not work any other way.

 

To answer your question: I assume YES, as the Microsoft program requires a floppy drive to backup I assume it must need the floppy to restore.

I haven't done an actual backup but as shown previously here I should be able to create a floppy backup by copy files. Assuming that I would need the floppy backup I now need to know how I can trick the system in to doing the restore without the floppy backup.

I am wondering, if I am able to get the files for the floppy from :
3. Navigate to the \%windir%\repair folder (e.g., C:\windows\repair).
4. Copy the asr.sif and asrpnp.sif files to a network location.
5. On a different networked computer that has a 3.5" disk drive, copy these files to a 3.5" disk and label the disk as your ASR disk.
Could I just restore the backup by copying the files back to the \%windir%\repair folder (e.g., C:\windows\repair) directory? Would the restore continue if I didn't have the floppy?

 

tlee,

You can rephrase the question all you want, the answer will not change, you need a floppy drive connected to do a restore.

My advice, forget about ASR and use another backup strategy.